Changes coming to minor leagues in 2021: How Atlanta Braves will be impacted?

The proposal

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The reported proposal is expected to slash 40 minor league teams from the now 160 affiliated clubs (excluding teams that are wholly MLB-owned teams). Going to 120 total teams would obviously require some rather invasive reorganization, and according to released details… MLB has several different changes in mind.

Just from reading over Baseball America’s report…

Not only are 40 teams expected to be eliminated, but MLB has plans to “rework” several of the leagues, “with some leagues getting much smaller, others getting bigger, and teams switching classification levels all around the country.”

Now, a lot of this will be positive for the minors, as MLB plans to improve many aspects of Minor League Baseball:

“We are in discussions with the owners of the Minor League teams to reorganize elements of the system with the goal of improving the working conditions of minor league players,” the MLB statement said, “including upgrading the facilities to Major League standards, increasing player compensation, reducing travel time between affiliates for road games, improving transportation and hotel accommodations, increasing the number of off days, and providing better geographical affiliations between the MLB clubs and affiliates.”

Although, while MLB seems to be interested in making things better in the minors, there are some specifics within this proposal that could very well be portrayed as someone wanting to simply gain more power.

Under the current structure, MLB and MiLB have been negotiating every two years on Player Development Contracts, which is something MLB doesn’t particularly like.

In fact, this new proposal will do away with the two-year pacts and replace them with “much longer-lasting MLB-MiLB franchise agreements,” according to Baseball America.

This would obviously rid the minors of any influence and could potentially create even longer-lasting problems, as the two parties would be locked in on agreements within an even longer time period; meaning, if someone doesn’t like something, then too bad… it’s going to be a while before renegotiations can take place.

MLB also wants to knock down the total amount of Player Development Contracts from 160 to 120 players, which at this time, hasn’t been agreed upon yet.

Here’s how the proposal plans to restructure the full-season leagues:

“The proposal also completely reorganizes the full-season minor leagues. While there would still be Triple-A, Double-A, high Class A and low Class A, those four levels would be completely reworked to make the leagues much more geographically compact. In Triple-A, the Pacific Coast League would shift from 16 teams to 10. The International League would grow to 20 teams. The 14-team low Class A South Atlantic League would be turned into a six-team league with a new Mid-Atlantic league springing up.”

There is also a value-system MLB wants to implement for the restructured league, standardizing the cost/compensation for each team(s) that will be forced to move up or down the ladder:

“The proposal lays out valuations for the different levels. Triple-A is valued at $20 million. Double-A is valued at $15 million. High Class A is valued at $10 million. Low Class A is valued at $8 million, and short-season/Rookie-level teams are valued at $6 million. A team moving up from low Class A to Triple-A would be asked to pay $12 million to move up. A team asked to move from Triple-A to high Class A would receive $10 million in compensation for the move down to a lower level.”

Also within this proposal, the MLB Draft will shorten to 20-25 rounds rather than the 40 we’re used to. MLB plans to create what they call a “Dream League,” essentially a league taking the place of Indy ball and will be operated by MLB and MiLB officials.

With these changes, the draft will move to immediately after the College World Series (end of June or the first of July).

Of course, nothing is set in stone, but according to BA’s report, these adjustments would be “the most dramatic restructuring of the minor leagues in more than half a century.”

Yes, lots going on here…

So how ’bout them Braves? How will this hurt/help our team?

What does this mean for the Braves?

Is it OK if I say I’m not exactly sure? This is uncharted territory, so a lot of this will have to play out.

But, the Atlanta Braves have a little something going for them; something that will perhaps allow them to essentially go through this without its minor league system being completely reshuffled, at least relative to numerous other organizations,

The Braves own six of its minor league affiliated teams, with only the High-A Florida Fire Frogs independently owned. That’s super important, because as I stated on the previous slide, only wholly MLB-owned teams are excluded from this reconfiguration.

That doesn’t mean that nothing will change for the Atlanta Braves, but I would presume that it gives the organization a heckuva lot more power than organizations who don’t own their affiliates.

In terms of good or bad, this all, of course, depends on your feelings toward a minor league shakeup.

For me, there are plenty of things that could be improved regarding Minor League Baseball, but it’s at least a good sign that a bunch of Braves’ minor leaguers will maybe not lose their jobs, or be moved as a result of these changes.

Well… some may lose their jobs.

If the ‘New Minor Leagues’ does, in fact, require teams to only have 120 PDC’s than there must be cuts somewhere.

So under the proposal, we’re looking at over 25 percent of ALL minor league teams being eliminated

In order for this to happen (while also leaving out the exempt teams), much of the eliminating will be done at the short-season level.

So players currently rostered by the Danville Braves (Rookie-Advanced), Gulf Coast Braves (Rookie), and Dominican Braves (Rookie) may be in serious danger, not to mention the independently owned Fire Frogs, who will be fully at the mercy of the changes of this proposed plan.

There was a piece I found over on CubsHQ that mentioned that each organization would be allowed one Rookie ball team. Unless I missed it — I didn’t see that specifically stated in BA’s report — but that could very well be true.

If it is true, then the impact would be a bit less, as instead of dropping three teams the Braves would have to eliminate two.

But fortunately for the Atlanta Braves, the organization has a much smaller pool of players that are rostered on short-season or instruct level clubs, compared to several other organizations.

In fact, as you know, the Braves don’t even have a Low-A team, where a lot of organizations do. Plus, there are several organizations that have multiple GCL and DSL teams, while the Braves just have one per league.

However, if those three short-season Braves minor league clubs had to be eliminated than obviously the players on those teams would either be able to join teams at a higher level (creating more shuffling) or simply be out of a job. People losing jobs never makes me too happy (without getting political here!).

Should we be happy or mad?

I obviously do not work for the Atlanta Braves and unfortunately have zero connections within the organization, so my opinion is absolutely based on simply my interpretations of the reports released thus far.

I’m sure there will be changes to several of these points, as both MLB and MiLB will continue negotiations. From now to 2021, there’s a lot that can change. I wouldn’t get too excited (either happy or mad) until we get farther down the line.

The bad

If you think all of this is a bit drastic, I’d have to agree with you. A lot of issues that the minor leagues are dealing with are long overdue in terms of finding logical solutions. Just look at the salaries of the minor league players… it’s pretty sad.

But this much change seems a bit too much.

I agree that there are too many minor league teams. I’m not sure I agree with slashing 40 of them, but a reduction is necessary, in my opinion.

There’s no need to have two GCL teams, two DSL teams, two rookie clubs, AND a low-A team. That’s seven teams right there, and we haven’t even gotten to the four full-season clubs.

The problem is that teams like the Yankees and Dodgers (and several more) will have to either find a spot for all of those teamless players… or basically let them go — that’s not good.

Another issue I have — though it’s more of a concern — is that this proposal will undoubtedly funnel more power to MLB.

If the restructure works well and everyone is happy, then that won’t be a problem; but if these changes aren’t great, then there’s not much that can be done since MLB is looking to ensure these agreements are long term arrangements.

The good

Despite this feeling like a drastic move, something must be done.

I’m not naive to think that this is all about MLB trying to improve the conditions of its minor league players. Sure, MLB may do that, but only if it benefits them as much or more in the process.

Sure MLB owners and officials may want to ensure its prospects are given better playing conditions and facilities to play and develop in, and maybe even better compensation, but with and only with them in complete control of the operation.

But at the end of the day, there are too many problems with the minors these days, and if MLB can execute a restructure that fixes a lot of them… then I’m all for it.

I mean if MLB will really pay the players more, upgrade the teams’ stadiums, transportation, and hotel accommodations, then perhaps we should be pleased — regardless of their underlying intentions.

Sure these are HUGE adjustments that will impact a lot of people, both in positive and negative ways; but for so long now people have complained and griped (including me) about how something needs to change in the minor leagues, but nothing has really been done.

Well… it appears that no longer is the case. Let’s just hope it all works out.

What do you think about the restructuring of the minor leagues? Will it work?